Moses Daddy-Ajala Simon (born 12 July 1995) is a Nigerian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

or left winger for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and the Nigeria national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Jos Jos is a city in the north central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State. During British ...

, his father served in the Nigeria Army before his retirement. Simon is a product of the famed GBS Academy, the same football academy in Nigeria that produced the likes of Ahmed Musa. He was linked with Nigerian Premier League club Kaduna United, as many professional clubs around the world were also eager to sign him. On 10 May 2013, it was announced that Simon had signed a pre-contractual agreement with Dutch club Ajax to join them in pre-season training, having previously been linked with

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. He made his first appearance for Ajax on 13 July 2013 in pre-season friendly match against

De Graafschap VBV De Graafschap () is a professional football club from Doetinchem, Netherlands, playing in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football. It was formed on 1 February 1954 and they play their home games at the De Vijverberg stadium. ...

, coming on as a substitute player and scoring the third and final goal in the 64th minute of the match, in a 3–0 away win. He made a further appearance on 17 July, playing for the reserves team

Jong Ajax Jong Ajax () (''English: Young Ajax''), also referred to as Ajax II or Ajax 2 is a Dutch association football team, the reserve team of Ajax. It is based in Amsterdam and competes in the Dutch Eerste Divisie. History Jong Ajax (''formerly more ...

in a pre-season friendly match against

Voorschoten '97 Voorschoten '97 is a football and athletics club in Voorschoten Voorschoten () is a village and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a smaller town in the Randstad, enclosed by the cities of Leiden, ...

, scoring the second goal in the 5–0 home win. On 25 July 2013, it was announced that Ajax would not sign the young Nigerian, ultimately waiving him from the pre-season roster. After the announcement discussions commenced with AS Trenčín; Ajax partner club in Slovakia, which is owned by former Ajax player Tschen La Ling.

AS Trenčín

On 13 January 2014, Simon signed three-year contract for Slovak side

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest municip ...

. He would join his compatriot Kingsley Madu.Mladí Nigérijčania podpísali s AS Trenčín zmluvy na tri roky
Profutbal.sk, citováno 9. 7. 2014 He made his

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

debut in a 1–1 draw against MFK Košice starting on the right wing alongside Gino van Kessel who was on loan from Ajax. He made his club international debut during the Trenčín's

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Europa League Final was ...

campaign, when he was introduced during the second preliminary round of the competition, in the home match against

Vojvodina Novi Sad Sportsko društvo Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Спортско друштво Војводина, lit=Vojvodina Sports Society), commonly abbreviated as SD Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, СД Војводина, link=no), formed in 1914, is a multi-sport club ...

from Serbia (played at the stadium in Dubnica, Slovakia). Simon scored a hat trick on his debut in the 4–0 win at home.Predkolo EL: Košice prehrali, Trenčín vyhral 4:0, Trnava remizovala
SME.sk, citováno 16. 7. 2014 AS Trenčín would eventually get eliminated in the following round, drawing at home, and falling 2–1 away against Hull City.Angličan Lawrence uspel na skúške v AS Trenčín
Profutbal.sk, citováno 13. 8. 2014 In October 2014

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

sports prepared a scouting report on Moses Simon and the report linked the winger with a move to Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Hull City along with a potential return to Ajax. The situation evolved into a bidding war between Dutch club Heerenveen and

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

, with the later contractually securing the winger for three years.

Gent

On 6 January 2015, it was announced that Gent had signed Moses Simon to a three-year contract. He made his debut for Gent on 17 January 2015 in a 3–1 win against

Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging betwee ...

in league play. His second appearance occurred four days later in a 1–0 home win against

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

in the Belgian Cup, in which Simon was sent off 30 seconds after he entered the field. In his third league game, again versus

Sporting Lokeren Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (; often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren) was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ce ...

, Simon scored a hat trick after which he was named Belgian league player of the week. He quickly became a key player in coach

Hein Vanhaezebrouck Hein Vanhaezebrouck (; born 16 February 1964) is a Belgian football manager who is currently leading K.A.A. Gent, K.A.A. Gent in the Belgian First Division A. He has a reputation of favouring an offensive style of play. Early life Vanhaezebrouc ...

's formation and helped Gent win their first ever national Championship title in May 2015. Two months later, Simon assisted

Laurent Depoitre Laurent Depoitre (born 7 December 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Gent. He has made one senior appearance for the Belgium national team. Club career Eendracht Aalst When a large number of players had to leav ...

's winning goal in the

2015 Belgian Super Cup The 2015 Belgian Super Cup was a football match that was played on 16 July 2015, between Gent, the winners of the 2014–15 Belgian Pro League and 2014–15 Belgian Cup winners Club Brugge. Gent won 1–0, winning the Super Cup for the first time. ...

against cup winners

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

Levante

On 6 August 2018, Simon joined Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

side Levante on a five-year contract. In March 2019 he said he was glad to be playing for the team.

Nantes

On 15 August 2019, Simon was loaned out to

club

. At the end of the season, Nantes triggered the option to buy in Simon's loan. He signed a four-year contract with the club. On 22 December 2023, Simon extended his contract with Nantes until 2026.

International career

Simon received his first call-up to the Nigeria national team by coach

Daniel Amokachi Daniel Owefin Amokachi (born 30 December 1972) is a Nigerian football manager and former professional footballer and a member of the dubious goals panel for the Premier League. As a player he was a forward who notably played in the Premier Lea ...

in March 2015 and made his debut on the 25th of the same month in an international friendly against

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, when he replaced

Anthony Ujah Anthony Ujah (born 14 October 1990) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward for German club Eintracht Braunschweig and the Nigeria national team. Early life Ujah grew up in the little town of Ugbokolo in Nigeria's Benue ...

after 59 minutes in the game. Simon scored his first goal for Nigeria in an international friendly against

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languages2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. However, he did not make the final 23 due to injury. He was included in the country's 23-man squad for the

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champion ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Nigeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Simon goal.''

Honours

Gent *

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

: 2014–15 * Belgian Super Cup:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Nantes * Coupe de France: 2021–22

References

External links

*
Moses Simon
at Goal.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Moses 1995 births Living people Footballers from Jos Nigerian men's footballers Nigeria men's international footballers Nigeria men's under-20 international footballers Nigerian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards AS Trenčín players K.A.A. Gent players Levante UD footballers FC Nantes players Slovak First Football League players Belgian Pro League players La Liga players Ligue 1 players Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players